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Multicenter Study
. 2022 Sep 23;12(1):15867.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19789-y.

Differences in clinical characteristics of cervical spine injuries in older adults by external causes: a multicenter study of 1512 cases

Noriaki Yokogawa  1 , Satoshi Kato  2 , Takeshi Sasagawa  1   3 , Hiroyuki Hayashi  1   4 , Hiroyuki Tsuchiya  1 , Kei Ando  5 , Hiroaki Nakashima  5 , Naoki Segi  5 , Toru Funayama  6 , Fumihiko Eto  7 , Akihiro Yamaji  8 , Satoshi Nori  9 , Junichi Yamane  10 , Takeo Furuya  11 , Atsushi Yunde  11 , Hideaki Nakajima  12 , Tomohiro Yamada  13   14 , Tomohiko Hasegawa  13 , Yoshinori Terashima  15   16 , Ryosuke Hirota  15 , Hidenori Suzuki  17 , Yasuaki Imajo  17 , Shota Ikegami  18 , Masashi Uehara  18 , Hitoshi Tonomura  19 , Munehiro Sakata  19   20 , Ko Hashimoto  21 , Yoshito Onoda  21 , Kenichi Kawaguchi  22 , Yohei Haruta  22 , Nobuyuki Suzuki  23 , Kenji Kato  23 , Hiroshi Uei  24   25 , Hirokatsu Sawada  25 , Kazuo Nakanishi  26 , Kosuke Misaki  26 , Hidetomi Terai  27 , Koji Tamai  27 , Eiki Shirasawa  28 , Gen Inoue  28 , Kenichiro Kakutani  29 , Yuji Kakiuchi  29 , Katsuhito Kiyasu  30 , Hiroyuki Tominaga  31 , Hiroto Tokumoto  31 , Yoichi Iizuka  32 , Eiji Takasawa  32 , Koji Akeda  33 , Norihiko Takegami  33 , Haruki Funao  34   35   36 , Yasushi Oshima  37 , Takashi Kaito  38 , Daisuke Sakai  39 , Toshitaka Yoshii  40 , Tetsuro Ohba  41 , Bungo Otsuki  42 , Shoji Seki  43 , Masashi Miyazaki  44 , Masayuki Ishihara  45 , Seiji Okada  38 , Shiro Imagama  5 , Kota Watanabe  9
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Differences in clinical characteristics of cervical spine injuries in older adults by external causes: a multicenter study of 1512 cases

Noriaki Yokogawa et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Although traumatic cervical spine injuries in older adults are commonly caused by minor traumas, such as ground-level falls, their prognosis is often unfavorable. Studies examining the clinical characteristics of cervical spine injuries in older adults according to the external cause of injury are lacking. This study included 1512 patients of ≥ 65 years of age with traumatic cervical spine injuries registered in a Japanese nationwide multicenter database. The relationship between the external causes and clinical characteristics, as well as factors causing unfavorable outcomes at the ground-level falls, were retrospectively reviewed and examined. When fall-induced cervical spine injuries were categorized and compared based on fall height, the patients' backgrounds and injury statuses differed significantly. Of note, patients injured from ground-level falls tended to have poorer pre-injury health conditions, such as medical comorbidities and frailty, compared with those who fell from higher heights. For ground-level falls, the mortality, walking independence, and home-discharge rates at 6 months post-injury were 9%, 67%, and 80%, respectively, with preexisting medical comorbidities and frailty associated with unfavorable outcomes, independent of age or severity of neurological impairment at the time of injury.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
External causes of injury by age group.
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